BrianV
Well-Known Member
Would you wait in line 1:45 to eat there? If yes, then I see your annoyance. If not, this is a better system.
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New Be Our Guest lunch line procedure (Test?)
- Thread starter mm52200
- Start date
Would you wait in line 1:45 to eat there? If yes, then I see your annoyance. If not, this is a better system.
How is this a better system? People used to be able to wait approx 30 minutes at the most. Now when they decide they're hungry and want to wait in the line they're told they have to come back almost 2 hours later. That's even if they get there and the tickets aren't all gone.
danlb_2000
Premium Member
But they could create a version that does.
BrianV
Well-Known Member
Let's imagine two people. Person a believes what they are told. Person b has inside information.
Under old system, person a shows up and is told wait is 1:45. They elect not to wait and never eat there. Under new system, person a shows up and is told they can come back for little or no wait in 2.5 hours. They come back and eat. Better for person a, clearly, if eating there is a goal.
Under old system, person b shows up and is told wait is 1:45. They know the ins and outs and know that 1:45 is a lie. They wait, and eat 20-30 minutes later. Better for person b. Under the new system, they have no special knowledge that helps them game the system.
In essence, the old system was better for people with inside information. The new system is better for the average person who didn't know 1:45=20.
Now maybe if they accurately estimated waits. 1. More people would wait if the line was listed as only 20 minutes. 2. Waits would get longer as more people waited. 3. We could find the true standby wait to be maybe 1 hour (who knows).
You are assuming two things: 1) that everyone was able to eat at BoG previously and only waited a max of thirty minutes and 2) that everyone is now being given return times that are almost two hours later. Both of these assumptions are incorrect.
1) While it's true that sometimes the wait for BoG was less than thirty minutes, I suspect that it was usually greater. I know that when my family went last fall our wait was at least 45 minutes and probably at least an hour before we made it to our table. As we left, we noted that the wait time was quite a bit longer, so those people had somewhat more than an hour to wait. Many people also blew off BoG either because the wait was too long or they didn't (or couldn't) wait this long in the hot sun. Also, there was the issue of the long line of people stretched halfway to tomorrow in the hot sun. The CMs eventually would cut off the line to new guests so the restaurant could close for lunch. Even if you wanted to wait in line after that, you weren't allowed to.
2) Many (most?) people don't have anything like a two hour wait under the tested system. After all, the first huge bunch of people have no wait at all. The first cards that are then handed out probably get a return time of just a few minutes later. This would be just a bit short of the average time it takes for people to start to finish up their QS meal plus the time that that it would take to wait in the internal queue and use the order terminals. The next cards would be twice this long, perhaps 45 minutes later so that they wouldn't have much wait once they returned. This would go on until they assigned all of the restaurant's lunch capacity (plus some percentage of overbooking to account for those who didn't return). It wouldn't surprise me if the absolute greatest return delay would approach two hours from the time that the card was given out.
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That would be a significant reengineering of the bands and associated systems.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I'm not saying push notifications should go to the bands, I was saying that push notifications could go to smart phones. What's more likely is they give you something that vibrates and lights up, like you would at any other restaurant in the world... They could even steal them from Dumbo.
crispy
Well-Known Member
Either make it a restaurant that requires either an ADR or a FP+ in order to be served or make it a true quick service and let people stand in line. Telling hungry people to come back in two hours just makes no sense any way you dice it, slice it, or excuse it. Like I said earlier, if I truly wanted to see the inside, I would go and eat somewhere else and then come back and order a cupcake. If they get enough people doing that, their revenues are going to sink like a rock.
Once again, the issue with the lines could be resolve fairly quickly if they had more cashiers taking orders instead of using the kiosk system. Heck, they could even borrow an idea from my local Chick-Fil-A. When it's especially crowded at the drive-thru, they will have an employee walking through the car line taking orders and calling it in and the writing your total and handing it to you. You don't have to wait to use the intercom, you just drive to the window, pay, and pick up your food. BoG could have someone take orders while people are standing in line, they pay at the cashier, get a rose, and are pushed through much faster. There are several alternatives ideas that would make this much easier than telling people to come back in a few hours.
Once again, the issue with the lines could be resolve fairly quickly if they had more cashiers taking orders instead of using the kiosk system. Heck, they could even borrow an idea from my local Chick-Fil-A. When it's especially crowded at the drive-thru, they will have an employee walking through the car line taking orders and calling it in and the writing your total and handing it to you. You don't have to wait to use the intercom, you just drive to the window, pay, and pick up your food. BoG could have someone take orders while people are standing in line, they pay at the cashier, get a rose, and are pushed through much faster. There are several alternatives ideas that would make this much easier than telling people to come back in a few hours.
Given that BoG doesn't have unlimited seating capacity, speeding up the ordering process as you envision would not resolve the line issue.
cw1982
Well-Known Member
To a degree it would. The faster people get their food, the faster they can get in, eat, walk around, and get out so that the next person has a place to sit. Under the current system, people are holding up tables for more time while waiting for their food.
Speeding up ordering would have no effect on the time it takes to deliver food (or eat or check out the room).
cw1982
Well-Known Member
No, but if people are able to order while they are farther back in line, by the time they pay, their food would be closer to being ready, meaning they would be holding up a table without having food for less time. The amount of time it takes to prepare the food won't change, but the wait after paying would.
A line after you order means that you are planning for these people to have to wait for a table after ordering and you run the risk of their food being ready before they have a table to eat it on which means that the food is either sitting in a window somewhere getting cold or sitting under a heat lamp getting gross. Either way, yuck.
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stevehousse
Well-Known Member
I think the biggest concern over all this is they are turning paying guests away. Of course wdw wants their newest restaurant to be a big hit, but when you turn guests away they eat elsewhere...this big looses profit. When people r hungry, they r gonna eat. Telling someone that is hungry now that they can't eat here for 2 hours later is a joke...
Again, I really would like to know just who exactly is in charge of reverting back to paper FPs recently??? They obviously don't know the first thing about customer service and need to be fired.
I mean, if I worked as a head of a company, and we just spent a billion dollars upgrading systems, and a year later they reverted back to the old system you would be sure heads would roll..."your telling me I just spent a billion dollars in upgrades and we aren't even utilizing them???" FIRED!
Again, I really would like to know just who exactly is in charge of reverting back to paper FPs recently??? They obviously don't know the first thing about customer service and need to be fired.
I mean, if I worked as a head of a company, and we just spent a billion dollars upgrading systems, and a year later they reverted back to the old system you would be sure heads would roll..."your telling me I just spent a billion dollars in upgrades and we aren't even utilizing them???" FIRED!
BrianV
Well-Known Member
I agree if the customers are going to go to a different place to eat. At disney, if they are sent away from one restaurant they will eat at another. And no money is lost if all tables are filled--merely by different people.
crispy
Well-Known Member
I have eaten there twice and there were vast amounts of seating available both times. Capacity doesn't seem to be an issue.
TRONorail12
Active Member
You are half right when you say Disney is turning paying guests away from the restaurant. You missed one critical point though. Be Our Guest TRIPLED the number of FP Reservations available on a daily basis. As a result, BOG is not "losing" money or guests by any means. The guests that are turned away are actually replaced by FP guests who are still paying to eat at the restaurant. BOG can only handle a certain capacity of guests each day, so what they did was even out the distribution of that capacity throughout the operating hours.
The new FP system at BOG has accomplished several things: 1) It grants more guests access to a "FP" and allows them to choose a time slot that they prefer (based on availability). 2) It speeds up the ordering process by allowing guests to order online ahead of time instead of debating over the menu for 10 mins at the kiosks. 3) It evenly distributes the number of guests served throughout the operating hours. 4) With an increase in the number of FP reservations, it eliminates the need for quests to queue on the bridge.
While some people will make the argument that they should be allowed to queue no matter how long they have to wait, unfortunately you are minority in this situation. The biggest complaint quests have made since BOG opened it's doors has been the QUEUE LINE. Surprise! The majority of guests have complained nonstop to WDW Research and Guest Relations about how "ridiculous" it is that they have to wait in such a long line for food. The masses have spoken. The End.
TRONorail12
Active Member
Capacity is a huge issue. Be very careful about assuming things that represent the entire course of the 4 hrs BOG is open for lunch on any given day. The only thing you can say with accuracy is that at the moment you completed your order, there was seating available for your party size.